The other
girl smiled at her and walked into another room. She came out with a coke and
some chips.

"Here," she
said approaching Jazlyn. Jazlyn looked at her warily but took the food.

"So, who
are you people?" she asked opening the coke. She pretended to be less nervous
than she actually was and walked past them to plop down on a couch.

"I'm
Jenna," the girl answered, "and this is Mathew."

"I'm
Jazlyn."

"Yeah, that's
what Shane said."

She looked
at them suspiciously. She suspected that they were going to help kill her.
Things worse than death crossed her mind, but she stopped herself from thinking
that way.

"We're not
going to kill you," Mathew said sincerely, his eyes taking on a pleading
quality. She tried to believe him. It would be so much easier to just accept
what he said. Something held her back, however.

"If only
there were another way," Shane mumbled.

"Shut up,
Shane. It's been done now deal with it."

Jazlyn felt
a sudden, strange sense of déjà vu. It was almost as if she had seen all of
this playing out before and already knew the outcome. Not that it would do her
much good in the present. She wouldn't remember it until it actually happened.
At least that was how it usually worked. She had to close her eyes against the
feeling. She hardly ever had such strong flashes.

"Are you
okay?" Shane asked, concerned.

"Yeah," she
said automatically.

"No, you're
not. You're pale."

"I said I
was fine," she said through gritted teeth. She wasn't going to let these
complete strangers see how insane she was. An uneasy silence pervaded the room.

"I told you
she was the one," Shane whispered.

"The one
what?" Jazlyn asked through gritted teeth.

"Well it's
really hard to explain," Jenna said trying to dodge the question.

"Try,"
Jazlyn said in a hard voice. Suddenly another flash hit.

The circle of magic,

The circle of night,

Sacrifices tragic,

Screams in moonlight,

Thirteen number the Catalyst

Called as one by our mother,
Rage

The thirteenth our last hope to
exist

Uncertain of side 'til the final
stage

Within the circle of magic shall
she stand

To choose the side that she
defends

The time of darkness is at hand

The spirits cry out as deepest
night descends

The circle of Magic,

The circle of Night,

Sacrifices tragic,

Screams in the light.

She didn't
realize she'd been speaking out loud until she opened her eyes and saw everyone
staring at her.

"Where did
you learn that?" Shane asked looking a little pale. Jazlyn shrugged and tried
to decipher the meaning behind the poem.

"How could
she know that, Shane?" Jenna asked fearfully.

"I don't
know."

Jazlyn
looked between the two of them, confused.

"It's from
one of the ancient works sacred to us," Mathew explained. "It's written in a
very complex language that few can translate. That's why we were so surprised
that you knew that passage."

"Shit," she
said even more convinced that she was having a very strange hallucination. It
was completely possible that she was really in school right now acting like a
wacko. Then again, did people who were hallucinating ever really think they
were hallucinating? She quickly stopped trying to figure that problem out.

"I know
you're probably really frightened-" Matthew began only to be cut off by a
bitter laugh.

"Frightened?
No, not really," she said sarcastically.

"Look,
there's not anything we can do about it. We had to find you. We have to help
you choose."

"Help me
choose what?"

"We have to
protect you," Shane corrected. She was silent at that. She couldn't remember
the last time someone had believed they needed to protect her from anything.
She'd been Jazlyn, the disturbed smart kid, for so long that anything else
seemed strange. She sat there silently until Jenna whispered something to
Shane.

"Jazlyn, we
want you to meet some people," he said smiling gently as if she were an animal
that was about to bolt.

"Why?" she
asked suspiciously. She was pretty sure that she didn't want to meet any more
members of this cult even though she had begun to get over her fear of these
three.

"To help
you decide. The others are here already."

"To help me
decide what?" she asked exasperatedly.

"Come," he
said walking toward the door. She had absolutely no intention of following him,
but she found her feet moving anyway.

"What the
hell?" she muttered still trying to make her feet stop moving. He led her
outside and through the woods surrounding the house. At any other time she
might have stopped to gaze at the dark beauty of the evergreens mixing with the
skeletons of the other trees, but at the moment she was too scared to think of
anything but death. She tried again and again to make herself stop, but it was
futile. She began to wonder yet again if it was even marginally possible that
they were who they claimed they were and were forcing her through the woods
with magic, but she disregarded that as crazy. She also struggled with the more
plausible theory that she was hallucinating.

"We'll be
there in just a minute Shane said kindly. Images of sacrificial altars flashed
into her mind. This was definitely not comforting. They stepped into a
clearing, and the air seemed to almost vibrate for a moment before returning to
normal. Well, that wasn't strictly true. It was almost the same, but there was
something that was different about it. It was almost as if the air had become
tangier. The twinge of danger that it seemed to hold frightened her even more,
but at the same time it was comforting since it made her feel a little bit less
insane.

"Shane,
greetings," a girl said walking towards them with a regal air as if she'd been
practicing it for years.

"Hello,
Denora," he replied smiling broadly. More figures stepped from the shadows, but
they were dressed in differently colored cloaks that hid their faces from view.

"I see
you've brought a guest with you. Am I correct in assuming that you have
succeeded in your quest?"

"Yep,"
Shane said proudly.

"You mean
you sent him on a quest to kidnap me?" Jazlyn asked indignantly. She knew it
probably would have been better to keep her mouth shut, but the combination of
so many stressful things had conspired to make her brain slower than her mouth.

"You looked
like my mother! What the hell did you expect me to do? No, Mom, I won't get in
the car with you. Why not? Well, you might happen top be a strange dude who can
change forms. You could just look like the woman who gave birth to me. That
would go over really well."

"Um…" Shane
said unintelligibly.

"Shane!
Jazlyn! We got here as soon as we could," Jenna said panting as she and Mathew
ran into the clearing panting.

"Will
someone please tell me just what the hell is going on here?" Jazlyn
asked beginning to become angry. If these people were going to kill her in a
sadistic and vicious manner they should at least have the courtesy to do it
quickly.

"You
already know about the thirteen and what you must decide," Jenna pointed out.

"Yeah…" she
admitted.

"So you
have to choose between two sides. Good and evil, obviously," she replied as if
speaking to a small child.

"The
passage didn't say good and evil," Jazlyn pointed out.

"What else
would it be talking about? I mean, good and evil have fought for so long, and
there's bound to be an ultimate battle sooner or later. I guess we'll be the
ones who decide which side wins."

"I thought
I decide."

"You decide
for the group. We'll follow you, but technically it's all of us."

"Which side
do you want to win?" Jazlyn asked.

"Good, of
course," Jenna answered rolling her eyes.

"Of course.
Only one question; how can you tell the difference?"

The twelve
looked at each other, each searching for the answer in another's face. None of
them had the answer, though. Therein laid the problem none of them had yet been
able to solve. It was a simple question really, but none of them had actually
formed it into a verbal query. The question was: exactly what was good, and what
was evil?

A/n: It's a bit longer than usual. Sorry for the lack of
updates, but I hope to update more now that I've moved all of my writing over
to my laptop. Now, being the last person I am, I can sit in bed and write. Lol.
Please review. Constructive criticism is always welcome!

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